What is the theme of "Araby"?

The principal idea of "Araby" is that youthful love is
childish and foolish, but that it is also normal, overpowering, and creative. Ideally,
memories like those the narrator is describing about his infatuation for Mangan’s sister
should be a cause for fondness, mingled perhaps with wonder and also amusement. Much of
the narrator’s memory exhibits just such beauty. If the experience of the childhood
"crush" produces unhappiness at the time it occurs, a mature understanding should be
able to filter out and eliminate the childhood misgivings to achieve a celebration of
time past. The narrator, however, does not indicate that this process has taken place,
and hence Joyce is presenting a portrait of a narrator who is still a victim of
childhood inhibitions.